Promotions
by nanjarohoihoi
Summary: After Jack's departure, the rangers were offered promotions. Z wasn't prepared for hers.


**Promotions**

When Jack left, Z expected Sky's promotion to Red Ranger and Bridge's promotion to Blue. What she did not expect was Commander Cruger turning to face her during their round of congratulatory applause to offer her Bridge's old morpher.

"You've been promoted to Green," he told her with a hint of a smile, as if this was a natural outcome of Jack's departure -- as if it was perfectly normal that her life was changing so drastically.

She didn't know how to respond, so she blurted, "Hasn't Syd been here longer?"

"Pink is ranked higher than Green," Sky pointed out and Z winced, momentarily embarrassed.

Syd didn't notice, though she eyed Z. "I didn't want Blue," she admitted. "Why be Blue when you could be Pink?"

Z waved her hands in the hands in the air in front of her, trying to process the information. "Wait. Let me get this straight." She pointed at Syd, who was concentrating on pushing down the cuticles on her left hand. "You were promoted to Blue, but didn't want it because -- let me guess -- it meant losing your favorite color."

Syd lifted her hand to examine her progress. "Yep," she agreed, resuming work on her ring finger.

Z turned on her heel to point at Bridge. "So Bridge was promoted to Blue instead."

"Well," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck with a gloved hand. "To be honest, Pink isn't really my color. I mean, I like Pink, don't get me wrong, it's just that Pink is Syd and I'd rather be Blue. If I had the choice, I mean."

She ignored him by pointing at herself. "So now I'm slatted to be promoted to Green."

Cruger raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem, Cadet?"

"I--" Z started without thinking. She didn't know how to answer. She wasn't sure she wanted Green. She figured she'd always be Yellow. Though it was the same way she figured Jack would always be Red. "I'd like some time to think about it," she admitted.

Cruger sighed heavily. "The longer you wait, the longer your team will have only four members."

For the time being, delaying her response would keep the team as it was, but Z knew it was already changing, and that the planet needed a strong team with five rangers to defend it.

"Twenty-four hours," she requested. "Give me twenty-four hours to decide."

Cruger nodded. "Very well. I await your decision." Then he turned his attention back to Sky and Bridge, and congratulated them once more.

Z felt guilty for tuning out of the proceedings almost entirely as she weighed her options. 'Yellow or Green?' she asked herself over and over again, reducing the problem to color choice to avoid confronting the obvious next question: 'What happens after I choose?'

In the corridor on her way back to B Wing, she was still lost in her thoughts when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She stopped and turned her head to meet Bridge's sympathetic smile. He told her, "If you want to stay Yellow, you can, you know?"

"I know," she said, nodding. She tried to smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," she admitted, taking two steps backwards to lean against the wall. They were alone in the corridor. "It's just that I got used to our team as it was. It's not that I thought Jack wouldn't leave or that Sky wouldn't become Red, it's that..." she trailed off, coming to terms with the fact that Jack was no longer their leader and that Sky had finally achieved his lifelong goal.

"They're going to add a new ranger, aren't they?" she asked, finally, though it came out as a statement more than a question.

"Probably," Bridge said, "but it won't be so bad. To have a new ranger, I mean."

She rested her head against the wall and stared at him curiously. "How can you be so sure?"

He offered her a small smile, and the way his eyes twinkled gave weight to his next words. "Because the last time new rangers were added to B-squad, we got you and Jack."

She didn't know how to respond to that, but she found herself grinning on instinct and felt the weight of tears in the corners of her eyes. She reached out until she had her arms around him and her head on his shoulder. "Thanks," she said softly.

"No problem," he said when they parted. Before they continued to B Wing, he wanted to know: "So are you going to keep Yellow? Because, speaking from experience, Green is pretty cool." He grinned at her and raised his eyebrows expectantly.

When Z laughed at him, she realized that her decision wasn't as important as she thought it was: no matter how much their team changed, they were still the same.


End file.
